Text message cycle security?

Mobile messaging company, Mediaburst, has announced that it has been selected by security services company, SOS Response, to provide the text interface platform of a security system, revealed on BikeBiz.com here, that aims to stamp out bicycle theft at railway stations, campuses, and town centres across much of the UK.

The mobile messaging company plan to work with SOS Response to set up wireless asset security protection cycle monitoring systems nationwide.

The system allows owners to lock up their bikes in secure, CCTV-monitored areas where available. All that owners then need do to protect their bike is send a text message to a security control room, which activates a lock. Should anyone tamper with it, a movement sensor on the lock emits a silent alarm, which triggers a CCTV camera to record the event. The live images on the security control room monitors are then verified against the owner information and a security officer can be sent to the crime scene if necessary to intervene. If the thief leaves the crime scene before the officer arrives, the images can be used as evidence for a successful prosecution.

The system was piloted in Portsmouth last October through December and bike crime was reduced by 90 per cent as a result according to a Mediaburst press release. Following the successful pilot, the WASP system is to be rolled out nationwide and extended to include motorbikes and scooters with Mediaburst's text interface platform being the system's communications hub.